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Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

If comments are allowed...

I think Sig is going to win this bet. Jewish Americans vote mostly Democrat, but their support isn't all that solid. The potential blowback on the party if Obama proposed sanctions would just be too great a risk.

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." - Ronald Reagan

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

Yeah, no sitting US president will ever institute sanctions against Israel. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn't done their homework, and clearly doesn't understand --and I mean at a foundational level-- US foreign policy. I wish we could bet money on here, but even then I'd feel bad taking cstamford's money.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

The only sitting U.S. President who could get away with placing sanctions on Israel would be a Jewish President. We'll see a black President, a female President, a gay President and probably even a slightly over-sized goldfish President before Americans ever elect a Jew to hold that office.

The U.S. is currently enduring a zombie apocalypse. However, in a strange twist, the zombie's are starving.

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

"The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which first reported on the meetings.

The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.

At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran." Hidden Content

Last edited by evensaul; December 6th, 2014 at 09:59 AM.

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." - Ronald Reagan

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

Still holding to my wager, rumor mongering from Fox news not withstanding.

Ding ding ding. While I find it interesting that Obama has floated the trial balloon out there, I have little concern that Obama would actually follow through. Of course, I didn't think Obama would suspend the Constitution while he let illegals into the country, nor did I think he'd ignore the Constitution and rewrite the nation's healthcare law on the fly. So.. Hey, anything's possible. I still wouldn't bet on it though.

The U.S. is currently enduring a zombie apocalypse. However, in a strange twist, the zombie's are starving.

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

I didn't think it would happen, but maybe cstamford will end up being right.

Israel: Beware of Obama

By Michael Goodwin

First he comes for the banks and health care, uses the IRS to go after critics, politicizes the Justice Department, spies on journalists, tries to curb religious freedom, slashes the military, throws open the borders, doubles the debt and nationalizes the Internet.

He lies to the public, ignores the Constitution, inflames race relations and urges Latinos to punish Republican “enemies.” He abandons our *allies, appeases tyrants, coddles *adversaries and uses the Crusades as an excuse for inaction as Islamist terrorists slaughter their way across the Mideast.

Now he’s coming for Israel.

Barack Obama’s promise to transform America was too modest. He is transforming the whole world before our eyes. Do you see it yet?

Against the backdrop of the tsunami of trouble he has unleashed, Obama’s pledge to “reassess” America’s relationship with Israel cannot be taken lightly. Already paving the way for an Iranian nuke, he is hinting he’ll also let the other anti-Semites at Turtle Bay have their way. That could mean American support for punitive Security Council resolutions or for Palestinian statehood initiatives. It could mean both, or something worse.

Whatever form the punishment takes, it will aim to teach Bibi Netanyahu never again to upstage him. And to teach Israeli voters never again to elect somebody Obama doesn’t like.

Apologists and wishful thinkers, including some Jews, insist Obama real*izes that the special relationship between Israel and the United States must prevail and that allowing too much daylight between friends will encourage enemies.

Those people are slow learners, or, more dangerously, deny-ists.

If Obama’s six years in office teach us anything, it is that he is impervious to appeals to good sense. Quite the contrary. Even respectful suggestions from supporters that he behave in the traditions of American presidents fill him with angry determination to do it his way.

For Israel, the consequences will be intended. Those who make excuses for Obama’s policy failures — naive, bad advice, bad luck — have not come to grips with his dark impulses and deep-seated rage.

His visceral dislike for Netanyahu is genuine, but also serves as a convenient fig leaf for his visceral dislike of Israel. The fact that it’s personal with Netanyahu doesn’t explain six years of trying to bully Israelis into signing a suicide pact with Muslims bent on destroying them. Netanyahu’s only sin is that he puts his nation’s security first and refuses to knuckle *under to Obama’s endless demands for unilateral concessions.

That refusal is now the excuse to act against Israel. Consider that, for all the upheaval around the world, the president rarely has a cross word for, let alone an open dispute with, any other foreign leader. He calls Great Britain’s David Cameron “bro” and praised Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, who had called Zionists, “the descendants of apes and pigs.”

Obama asked Vladimir Putin for patience, promising “more flexibility” after the 2012 election, a genuflection that earned him Russian aggression. His Asian pivot was a head fake, and China is exploiting the vacuum. None of those leaders has gotten the Netanyahu treatment, which included his being forced to use the White House back door on one trip, and the cold shoulder on another.

It is a clear and glaring double standard.

Most troubling is Obama’s bended-knee deference to Iran’s Supreme Leader, which has been repaid with “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” demonstrations in Tehran and expanded Iranian military action in other countries.

The courtship reached the height of absurdity last week, when Obama wished Iranians a happy Persian new year by equating Republican critics of his nuclear deal with the resistance of theocratic hard-liners, saying both “oppose a diplomatic solution.” That is a damnable slur given that a top American military official estimates that Iranian weapons, proxies and trainers killed 1,500 US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who in their right mind would trust such an evil regime with a nuke?

Yet Netanyahu, the leader of our only reliable ally in the region, is *repeatedly singled out for abuse. He alone is the target of an orchestrated attempt to defeat him at the polls, with Obama political operatives, funded in part by American taxpayers, working to elect his opponent.

They failed and Netanyahu prevailed because Israelis see him as their best bet to protect them. Their choice was wise, but they better buckle up because it’s Israel’s turn to face the wrath of Obama.

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

Again, using right wing ideologues writing editorials as a guide to the future is not going to get you far.

Obama will not impose economic sanctions on Israel. Though I'm sure the thought has crossed his mind, and though he does sometimes take other than the hook line and sinker approach to them, he is not going to sanction them or vote for a sanction of them. He will do little more that apply rhetoric and sometimes act in ways they think are not in their interest.

One of the ideas on the right I'll never be down with is the notion that unless you act like an asshole all the time you are weak and that talking up a storm about how angry and tough you are is what makes someone strong. Those are the tactics of bullies and braggarts.

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

Not quite economic sanctions, but...

Washington (CNN) The United States on Friday allowed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to be adopted, defying extraordinary pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in alliance with President-elect Donald Trump.

The Security Council approved the resolution with 14 votes, with the US abstaining. There was applause in the chamber following the vote, which represented perhaps the final bitter chapter in the years of antagonism between President Barack Obama's administration and Netanyahu's government... Hidden Content

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." - Ronald Reagan

Re: Wager: Will Obama institute economic sanctions against Israel?

Washington (CNN) The United States on Friday allowed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to be adopted, defying extraordinary pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in alliance with President-elect Donald Trump.

The Security Council approved the resolution with 14 votes, with the US abstaining. There was applause in the chamber following the vote, which represented perhaps the final bitter chapter in the years of antagonism between President Barack Obama's administration and Netanyahu's government... Hidden Content

Not quite... as in it didn't happen. Yes, Obama gave one last symbolic middle finger to Israel. However, the bet was specifically that he would impose sanctions. Just accept that you lost. Ask Sig for the signature and uphold your end of the deal.

The U.S. is currently enduring a zombie apocalypse. However, in a strange twist, the zombie's are starving.